Maurice Thibeault, Chatham’s $6-million lottery winner, was tight-lipped about his winnings and his mounting legal battle to keep them Wednesday after his former live-in girlfriend filed a court injunction to try to block the payout.

“I’m just seeing what the lawyers come up with and what my rights are and go from there,” said Thibeault, who’s become one of the most controversial men in Canada since going seemingly underground. “When this is all said and done I might make a comment to the papers, but until then I’m just laying low.”

He said he’s awaiting advice and direction from his legal team on the situation, which is shaping up to be one of Ontario’s most controversial lottery disputes in recent years — but not the biggest such case in Southwestern Ontario.

“I’m not making any comments or saying anything,” he told The Free Press by phone.

Thibeault’s ex-girlfriend, Denise Robertson, claims the couple agreed to share the winnings of frequently bought lottery tickets long before he purchased the Lotto 6/49 ticket that won half of a $12-million jackpot Sept. 20.

In an affidavit not yet tested in court, Robertson says she and Thibeault had lived together for more than two years and often bought lotto tickets as a couple. When she heard a $6-million ticket had been sold in Chatham, Thibeault told her theirs lost, she claims.

Days later, Robertson said the pair left home as usual in the morning but when she returned, Thibeault had moved all his belongings out.

Robertson later learned Thibeault had told his boss they’d broken up and he was quitting his job, she claims in the affidavit.

Little is publicly known about Thibeault, a former tire technician who recently quit his job at a Chatham-area granite company after his potential windfall. He’s apparently been too busy to delete his social media history, though, which includes his successful sale of home-gym equipment in July — for $150.

Messages to Thibeault’s lawyer Wednesday went unreturned.

Robertson’s lawyer, Steve Pickard, has said the firm reached an agreement with Ontario’s lottery regulator that none of the money would be distributed without 30 days notice.

But both sides could be waiting much longer, said family lawyer Russell Alexander,.

“It could be potentially two or three years before there’s a trial. And if there is a trial, somebody may not like the outcome and decide to appeal it,” said the Lindsay-area lawyer who has followed lottery disputes like this for years.

In common-law situations, Alexander said the million-dollar question courts will have to answer is about the intent of the relationship. Details about whether Robertson and Thibeault shared living expenses, pooled resources, used a joint bank account or presented themselves as a couple in public, are likely to be considered by the judge.

“If they were married, it’s slightly different,” he said, “but with common-law couples, there appears to be a bit of a grey area that, combined with greed, ends up having people going to court to fight over these things.”

The feuding former couple are in good company, said Michael Cochrane, partner at Brauti Thorning Zibarras in Toronto.

“There are far more cases than people realize,” said Cochrane, who settled a case in 2014 of a Bombardier employee who claimed he was owed a piece of the $50-million jackpot won by his workplace lottery pool while he was on vacation.

“In my office, I have behind me a black binder that’s five-inches thick that’s full of cases from all around the world. Just lottery disputes.”

Among the cases in Canada is the legendary 2004 fight between Woodstock-area, $30-million lottery winner Ray Sobeski and his ex-wife Nynna Ionson. Sobeski finalized his divorce months before cashing in his winning ticket, prompting a years-long legal battle. The case was settled in a confidential, out-of-court settlement in 2009.

Another, the $2-million lottery dispute from 2000 between Berta Haley and her then live-in boyfriend David Thompson, most closely resembles the case unfolding in Chatham now, Cochrane said.

“The ticket had been purchased, one said, as a birthday present for the other. The common-law wife took the ticket to redeem it,” said Cochrane.

“It turned out it was a winner. She then immediately left the relationship.”

Thompson said the couple had an understanding they’d share any lottery winnings and took his former live-in girlfriend to court.

“The court believed him, not her,” said Cochrane.

The mounds legal cases should serve as a cautionary tale, said Cochrane. Lottery players — especially ones in intimate, common-law relationships or ones managing workplace pools — need to be extra clear about the terms and expectations in case they hit the jackpot.

“You have to be very, very careful,” said Cochrane.

“Make sure that everybody understands what the rules are.”

Even with court cases and precedent, Cochrane said he’s interested to see how Thibeault’s $6-million lottery fight pans out.

“It’s a pretty tough road to prove that, if you’re in an intimate relationship, whether it’s married or common-law, and that it’s your intention that if you win the lottery, it’s 100 per cent yours,” he said.